Did guns or vaccines save more lives in 2021?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

It’s a much simpler matter to compare deaths from COVID between the group of people vaccinated for COVID and people who weren’t. Suppose 100 people who test positive for the virus are hospitalized, 50 vaxxed and 50 unvaxxed. If 40 of the unvaxxed patients die, but only 10 of the vaxxed patients die, it’s reasonable to conclude that the COVID vaccine saved 40 lives.

That's not remotely how it works. Vaccinated individuals mostly die at approximately the same rate as the unvaccinated individuals.
Vaccinated individuals tend to be older than the unvaccinated individuals. And an unvaccinated 75-year-old has about a thousand times more chances of dying if he catches COVID than a 20-year-old does if he catches COVID. And vaccines decrease one's chances of dying from COVID around 20 times, that is, it is as if they make you 20 years younger. A vaccinated 75-year-old has about as much chances of dying if he catches COVID as an unvaccinated 55-year-old has, which is still way more than an unvaccinated 20-year-old.

This is why the age factor is accounted for. You can’t sensibly compare a vaccinated 75 year old to an unvaccinated 20 year old. You need to compare the death rates of vaccinated 75 year olds to unvaccinated 75 year olds.

What you’re positing is like comparing the number of humans killed by tigers in India with the number of humans killed by tigers in Brazil and concluding that Brazilian tigers are more docile.

Boru